Deanna Doss Shrodes

We don't have some things, because we don't ask God for them. James 4 tells us that. I also believe that as we delight ourselves in the Lord, He gives us the desires of our heart. (Psalm 37:4) Sometimes God answers when we don't even ask for the desires of our heart. Perhaps it's because we don't see how God would do it within our current structure. Translation: our current box.   We forget that His ways and His thoughts are higher than ours. (Isaiah 55) He can give us our desires even when it doesn't seem feasible at all. He is truly omniscient. I love that, and so much more about Him.    I'm a homebody at heart. Most would never guess it, but at the core I'm an introvert who could live in my pajamas, with a dog by my side, writing books until Jesus comes back. But  I was convinced   that one day upon retirement I was going spend my days in between pj's and book writing, taking road trips. These jaunts would be for purpose of encouraging le...

An informal poll I took recently among friends in ministry revealed that most don’t take a day off. Or if they do it’s not a true day off. I’ve known the importance of a Sabbath for a long time. After all it’s in the Bible . And I’m a minister, so I’ve done plenty of reading of the Bible. But for some reason those of us in ministry, myself included, seem to need more of a kick in the pants about taking a Sabbath, even more than our non-clergy counterparts.  Several weeks ago, I was spending time with some women's ministry leaders and brought this up. I was encouraging them about getting proper rest and practicing self-care. I discovered that even on their day off, 99.9% of them check work emails and texts, and “take a moment to answer back real quick.” I suggested to the group that all of those moments taken to “answer back real quick” add up.   I know because I’ve been so guilty of it myself. I also suspect that by answering back, most of us have entire Sabbaths...

This may just be the strangest thing that has EVER happened to me in an elevator. Why am I including an elevator story among the "True Church Stories" series ? Because I include things in this series that go on in the course of ministering in the "church world", not just in the church building or office. In addition to pastoring at our church I also travel and speak. The past few years I've traveled an average of about one weekend a month doing that. Many times I've been asked to speak about marriage. In fact, at our district Experience Conference, I've taught the session on married sexuality for many years. I asked not to have that assignment this past year, because I was kind of tired of being known as "the sex lady" at least as that particular conference is concerned. I enjoy teaching about biblical sexuality, but I also like to share on a plethora of other topics. So... At a women's conference years ago here in Florida, I was as...

What should a pastor do when a woman comes to them and confides that they are being abused? HELP THEM. It's a shame that this even has to be said. It's deplorable. But, it's necessary. So many abused women have been told by pastors to submit to their abuser. Leaders will have to answer for this not only absurd but also possibly deadly counsel. I am so grateful that Karen* has pastors who believe her.  That's what people need when they are abused -- support from those who have been placed in their lives to protect them. Shall a shepherd neglect an abused sheep? It's unconscionable to me that we would even have to spell this out. Sometimes pastors say they don't want to get involved. Doing so can be messy. They say it's a family matter , not really a church one, and they would rather not interfere. Or because the woman being abused has faults (hello! who doesn't?!) they think maybe the abuse isn't such a terrible thing, or that ...

Years ago when I was first starting out in the ministry an older minister took me aside and sternly said these exact words: "Deanna, if you're ever going to be successful in the ministry you're going to have to learn to suppress yourself." I knew what the word suppress meant but just to get a fuller picture I went home and looked it up in the dictionary.   Sup·press     [ s uh - pres ]   verb (used with object) 1. to put an end to the activities of (a person, body of persons, etc.): to suppress the Communist party. 2. to do away with by or as by authority; abolish; stop (a practice, custom, etc.). 3. to keep in or repress (a feeling, smile, groan, etc.). 4. to withhold from disclosure or publication (truth, evidence, a book, names, etc.). 5. to stop or arrest (a flow) After this comment was made I quickly decided to suppress anything that person ever said to me again by stopping it ...

Yesterday I posted something my friend Gary Boggess from church wrote about the reasons he's glad he's not a pastor. If you didn't read that post it's necessary to read that one to understand this one so if you missed it you might want to go there . A lot of people responded on facebook to that post, in fact right now it's up to 28 comments on two facebook pages although no one commented here on the actual blog site.  Other pastor-friends and their wives wrote to me privately to give their thoughts since they felt they could not safely post their thoughts publicly. All church people who posted comments were of the belief that pastors should be free to speak their mind like anyone else. Several of our Celebration Church members shared their appreciation for how I do speak boldly on certain issues and they encouraged me to never hold back. I appreciate that.  I want to follow up today and to try to bring greater understanding as to why many pastors do hold ...